“What is considered an international marriage broker? I met my fiancée through a dating website.”
The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBRA) is a law in the United States that changed the marriage-based immigration process to help foreign fiancé(e)s and U.S. spouses. IMBRA mandates that the U.S. government give immigrating foreign fiancé(e)s and spouses information and self-help tools to help protect them against violence from the partners who sponsor their visas. Although there are many marriage brokering websites, it’s important to remember that not all dating websites are considered marriage brokering websites.
A lot of people initially meet online. Some people also meet because the American was overseas as a student, a tourist, or working. So meeting online itself is not a problem and as for the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act, IMBRA, yes, the burden is on you to demonstrate it is not a marriage broker. If you’re using our service we’ll guide you through that. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) wants to see information that shows that this is not an international marriage broker such as a printed version of the terms of use of that website.
It’s possible your dating site is considered an IMB, and in that case, you would simply need to provide a different set of documentation with your petition. In fact, there is nothing wrong with using a marriage broker. There are still a lot of them in Russia, Ukraine, and the old Soviet bloc countries.
